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Republican VP hopeful visits ABQ campaigning for Trump

Cathy Cook | October 21

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence spoke at a rally Thursday night at the Embassy Suites, campaigning for presidential candidate Donald Trump just days after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander visited UNM to encourage support for Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Pence’s speech touched on everything from political ethics and foreign policy to health care and voter fraud. Pence said the Clinton Foundation, and Clinton herself, has acted unethically, while emphasizing that Trump has laid out a five-point plan for reforming ethics in Washington D.C.

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UNM professor terminated after reports of sexual discrimination

Matthew Reisen | October 20

UNM officials on Thursday announced the termination of a professor’s contract after sexual harassment and discrimination allegations were brought against him. Cristobal Valencia was suspended earlier this semester for a second time in light of new information into the allegations against him. A report from the UNM Office of Equal Opportunity concluded with probable cause that he discriminated against certain students based on sexual orientation, violating University policy.

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New report assesses UNM's gender pay gaps

Jonathan Natvig | October 19

Much has been said at varying levels about the pay gap between different genders and ethnicities in certain industries, but when factoring in rank and field of study, women and minority faculty are almost paid equally to men at UNM. However, according to a report analyzing base pay of faculty from the Office of the Provost, , men are more likely to be promoted to full professorships, while salaries for women and minorities become less “competitive over time.” In 2007, the UNM Economics Department conducted an analysis of faculty compensation for the Office of the Provost and found that — on average, without looking at rank and field of study — women faculty earned 87 percent compared to the salaries of white, non-Hispanic men.

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UNM law program welcomes new director

Brendon Gray | October 19

Rodina Parnall, the former senior policy advisor to the assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, is joining the American Indian Law Center as the assistant director for the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaskan Natives. PSLI is an intensive 8-week program designed to prepare American Indians and Alaskan Natives for their first semester in law school. Parnall, currently an adjunct professor atthe UNM School of Law, will be taking over for Heidi Nesbitt as director of the institute next year. Nesbitt, has been in the position since 1984 and will be retiring.

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HSC leans on technology to push preventative measures at home

Sarah Trujillo | October 19

Associates and students at UNM’s Health Sciences Center has developed a smartphone app that engages visual aids to teach how to prevent injuries and hazards to children in the household. The app stems from the Child Ready Program, which was made possible through a federally funded grant awarded to New Mexico and border regions of Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Mexico.

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Board of Regents briefs

Nikole Mckibben | October 19

The UNM Board of Regents met on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, the University budget, athletics finances and the timeline for finding President Bob Frank's replacement. 

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UNM to provide mental health screenings

Elizabeth Sanchez | October 19

“More than 43 million adults in the United States struggled with mental illness in the past year. Half of us will meet the criteria for a diagnosable mental health condition at some point in our lives, and one quarter by the age of 14,” said SHAC Public Information Representative Maya Trujillo, citing the Center for Disease Control and Preventio. In the wake of such high statistics, this Thursday, University of New Mexico will be hosting free, annual mental health screenings from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the SHAC on Main Campus and at the UNM Law School on North Campus.

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Crime Briefs for Oct. 20, 2016

Elizabeth Sanchez | October 19

Crime Briefs for Oct. 20

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Bernie Sanders visits UNM to campaign for Hillary Clinton

Johnny Vizcaino | October 19

Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders returned to Albuquerque on Tuesday morning to address over a thousand students and community members — some supports, some opponents — in a Get Out The Vote rally on campus. Five months after sharing his message of political revolution during his own candidacy in front of more than 7,000 at the Albuquerque Convention Center, the senator from Vermont once again drew a crowd, made up mostly of those in support of the campaign’s mission to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.

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Report: HSC improving in terms of faculty diversity

Jonathan Natvig | October 18

In 2011, UNM Health Sciences Center and Main Campus officials began a program to facilitate a more diverse faculty community at HSC, and it has been paying dividends in the years since its implementation. The program is called the Advancing Institutional Mentoring Excellence Pilot Project (AIME), and according to a 2016 status report, the initial objective was to foster a more diverse workforce, mentor junior faculty members in “understanding of relational structures” and create educational tools for faculty to set and realize goals.

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Jeers combatting cheers

David Lynch | October 18

While Hillary Clinton supporters cheered at comments made by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – Clintons’ surrogate at an on-campus rally in front of Mesa Vista Hall on Tuesday – just as many congregated closer to the SUB, countering with political signage and chanting anti-Clinton rhetoric. The vast majority of this group was for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico who has steadily polled around 10 percent nationally in recent weeks, and as high as 24 percent in the state, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

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UNM, DOJ agree to reforms to combat campus sexual assault

Cathy Cook | October 18

UNM and the U.S. Department of Justice signed a formal agreement on Monday outlining changes the University must implement to be in compliance with federal Title IX and Title IV policy. The agreement offers a three-year plan for updating UNM’s policies and practices in the handling of Title IX complaints, acknowledging that the University began addressing some of the issues outlined in an April report which detailed the findings of the DOJ’s investigation into how UNM handles claims of sexual assault or harassment.

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University seeking feedback from students for potential academic modifications

Johnny Vizcaino | October 18

The UNM Office of Assessment is set to host its second annual Institutional Assessment Days, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Director of Assessment Neke Mitchell said the purpose of IAD is to determine whether or not UNM core curriculum is making the desired impact on student learning, and if the University is preparing students to enter the workforce with skills desired by employers. “The whole idea of the core is to provide students with a foundational knowledge that will help them better succeed in their upper-level courses,” she said.

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UNM expands donor campaign

Cathy Cook | October 16

A new campaign, UNM Gives, is encouraging charitable donations and volunteerism within the University community, expanding on its United Way Campaign. Abra Altman, a strategic support manager at UNM, said that every year the president’s office and the University encourage people to donate money. Altman said the goal of the new campaign is to encourage giving to the United Way of Central New Mexico and UNM Foundation, as well as highlighting the ways UNM students and staff already support the Albuquerque community through volunteer work.

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Community councils monitor APD

Sara MacNeil | October 16

The Albuquerque Police Department’s newly-created Community Policing Councils are seeking UNM students to help them better facilitate communication between APD and the community. CPCs were one of the requirements included in the 2014 settlement agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and APD, as a result of the DOJ’s investigation of APD’s use of excessive force. In light of its findings, the DOJ mandated that the city establish CPCs in each of the six area commands that APD divides the city into: the foothills, the valley, the northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest commands.

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Monday on the Street: The presidential race

Matthew Reisen | October 16

How would you define the 2016 political race and why?

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Restaurants fundraise through GroupRaise

Nichole Harwood | October 16

An online fundraising platform is reaching out to UNM groups, clubs and sports teams, to host fundraising events at local partner restaurants. GroupRaise, an online organization, has created a way to help with the process of connecting students to those businesses. GroupRaise has created a network of local Albuquerque restaurants who are willing to donate 15 to 25 percent of their sales to UNM student causes and clubs when they book a fundraising event this fall.

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Bernie Sanders to visit UNM

Daily Lobo Staff | October 16

Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders is returning to campus this week to campaign for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and this time he'll be even closer to the UNM community than when he hosted a rally at the Albuquerque Convention Center in May. Sanders will speak at Mesa Vista Hall on Tuesday beginning at 11:00 a.m., as part of a final push by the Clinton campaign to widen its lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump as much as possible in the final weeks leading up to Election Day on Nov. 8.

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Marching after a mistrial

Sara MacNeil | October 14

Early on Wednesday evening, activists gathered in front of the Bernalillo County Courthouse to protest the announcement of a mistrial in the case against former Albuquerque Police Department officers Dominique Perez and Keith Sandy. The protest, though smaller than past rallies against APD, was eventually met with SWAT teams in riot gear, many armed with assault rifles. Perez and Sandy were on trial for second-degree murder after fatally shooting James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man, in the Sandia foothills in 2014. This was the first time in at least 50 years that an on-duty APD officer was charged criminally for shooting a suspect. The trial ended in a hung jury on Tuesday, with nine jurors voting to acquit and three voting guilty. Raúl Torrez, the incoming District Attorney, will decide whether or not to retry the case when he takes office in January.

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HSC considering ways past budgets deficits

Johnny Vizcaino | October 14

This week, members of the Board of Regents Health Sciences Center Committee responded to proposed budgeting strategies — including delayed hiring and a budget cap for 2017 — in the face of impending state budget cuts. As a state-funded institution, UNMH is preparing to deal with a reduced budget by “re-engineering” programs and implementing a hiring strategy that would refrain from filling employment vacancies unless absolutely necessary, according to a presentation by HSC Senior Executive Officer for Finance and Administration Ava Lovell.